Archive for the ‘autism social stories’ Category

For many teachers and parents teaching social skills to children with autism can be difficult. When you think of a social skill like for example lining up in class, there are many different aspects to this skill, which can be confusing to a child with autism.

We must always bear in mind that a child with autism thinks literally so may not see things the same as a typically developing child or indeed you: So for example with a skill like lining up the child with autism may not actually want to line up at that moment and will not understand why it is necessary, or maybe they wish to be first in the line; and will not understand why this is not possible every day.
The idea of taking turns or following rules may be confusing for kids on the spectrum, this is due to social skills deficits which ARE common to all kids on the spectrum.

The child with autism is not being difficult he/she has social skills deficits which make learning social, communication and imagination skills difficult for them, without direct teaching.
Many parents and teachers use autism social skills stories for teaching social skills such as lining up, taking turns and other appropriate behaviours in school and around the home.

Autism social skills stories ARE short descriptive visual tools which use visual images and first person text to help kids on the spectrum understand the skill or situation that they are struggling with. The social story acts like a visual framework or step by step plan of the skill, breaking it down into smaller relevant sections the “social cues”.

The social story answers the “wh” questions: who, what, where, why and when as well as “HOW” and will give the ASD child an insight into the thoughts, feelings and emotions of others which is an area of marked weakness in most children with autism.

Autism social skills stories for teaching social skills are easy to use, can be edited and need no formal training to use.

Autism social stories can be used for various situations and skills including: self-help skills, hygiene, transitions, changes to routines and so on.

Autism Social Stories are a visual teaching tool intended to help teach social skills to children with autism.

They provide the individual with autism spectrum an explanation and visual framework of the skill or situation that they may find difficult or confusing.

Research suggests Autism Social Stories as a visual teaching tool can be used to help reduce stress and inappropriate behaviours in some children with an ASD. The social story will increase social understanding and therefore help children with an ASD reach their full potential.

The goal of a social skills story is to increase the child’s understanding of skills and social situations. By making the child more comfortable with and in the situation, and suggest possible responses they may receive from others.

Social skills stories follow specific sentence types: descriptive, perspective, directive and control. Introduced around twenty years ago as a means of communication, Autism Social Stories have grown into a very popular visual strategy that can be used with all autistic individuals regardless of age and ability.

Generally social skills stories are written by experts, teachers and parents to help teach social and communication skills to autistic individuals. Autism Social Stories can be edited to suit all needs, personalized, printed and are portable, making them convenient and easy to use.

A social skills story can be introduced to help deal with any situation or skill that the child needs help with. No formal training is needed to use social skills stories, site which offer support and expertly written Autism Social Stories can be found using search engines such as Google.

Sites that offer Autism Social Stories intended to support children with autism like http://www.autismsocialstories.com offer support, and downloads of social skills stories.

A social skills story should be visual and use first person text, like a role model the social skills story will help with transitions, and changes to routines as well as teach and support social skills and communication difficulties.

For more information on this visual strategy visit any of the following sites and find Autism Social Stories intended to support children with autism

A child on the autism spectrum will not set out intentionally to cause stress or upset anybodies feelings. They will not misbehave or harm simply out of fun or mischief.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disorder that affects the individual’s brain and the way the individual processes information, communicates, uses language, thinks, acts, reacts and uses their imagination. These common characteristics of autism are called social skills deficits.

The common characteristics of autism will often make a child on the autism spectrum appear rude, aloof even arrogant at times. However this is not intentional, an individual with autism spectrum disorder will be brutally honest and say as they see it, be uninterested in appearing cool and oblivious to public opinion.

These are not bad characteristics, just difficult to understand. However for parents with autistic children these common characteristics of autism can make life extremely difficult and at times stressful.

Tactics to teach children with autism social and communication skills and behaviours are useful, research does suggest parents report significant improvements in social behaviours.

Using Tactics to teach children with autism such as autism social stories does help. Autism social stories are short descriptive stories like a social script or framework for the skills or behaviour needing to be taught.

Using visual images which most autistic children find easier to understand and first person text the social story breaks the skill down into relevant social cues and shows the person with autism spectrum disorder what to expect and what others will expect from them.

Answering the “wh” questions – who, where, why, when and what as well as offering an insight into the verbal and non verbal communications of others, social skills stories can help support as well as teach social and communications skills, thus reducing stress and inappropriate behaviours.

ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is a pervasive developmental disorder typically affecting more boys than girls; the condition is almost always detected before the age of three.

The traits of autism will vary between individuals, as no two individuals are ever going to be the same. However some common traits of autism that all those with this pervasive developmental disorder will display are that of social skills deficits.

Typically kids with autism will have social skills deficits in three main areas of developmental, social interactions, communication and imagination skills as well as difficulties with ritualistic or repetitive behaviours.

One of the major issues faced by kids with autism is reading facial and body language, as well as understanding verbal and nonverbal communications and gestures.

The traits of autism you may have noticed in your ASD child could be:

A lack of ability to direct others attention to what they want or need. Unlike a normally developing child, who will point or gesture towards the object in question.

Kids with autism rarely adjust their gaze to look at objects, and lack the inclination to look at something they are being directed towards.

An ASD child may have communication difficulties and find sustaining or beginning conversations difficult.

Sometimes kids with autism will be slow developing speech and sometimes speech may never actually begin.

They may engage in repetitive behaviours…for example repeating a TV commercial or rhyme etc.

They may confuse simple language terms, and use language in the wrong context, for example they may refer to themselves by name in a conversation or sentence, not by saying “I”; i.e. rather than saying “can I have a biscuit”, they may say “Ben wants a biscuit” and so on…

On occasions an autistic child may prefer to communicate by gesture rather than using speech.

Autistic children have difficulties in making eye contact which can make social encounters difficult therefore making friends can be an issue.

The child may struggle with interactive games and pretend play, failing to see what the point of the activity or game is.

Understanding your child with ASD and forming appropriate approaches for teaching them is very important.

There are various approaches for teaching a child with ASD. One very effective strategy is the use of visual support tools such as autism social stories.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is far more common these days, and research into the treatments of this pervasive developmental disorder suggests using visual support tools has had a positive effect on the lives and families of those diagnosed ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).

Approaches such as autism social stories are used for all situations and activities the ASD child may be confused by or struggling with, for example: Going to the dentist, the death of a loved one, recess, a new car, brushing their hair.

Autism Social Skills Stories are a visual teaching method used to help teach social skills to children with autism.

Autism Social Skills Stories provide the individual with autism spectrum disorder an explanation and visual framework of the skill or situation that they may find difficult or confusing.

Research shows that the Autism Social Stories are an excellent autistic visual teaching means which can be used to help reduce stress and inappropriate behaviours in some children with an ASD. The social story also increases social understanding and has been reported as a good approach for helping children with an ASD to reach their full potential.

The goal of a social skills story written to direct children with autism is to increase the autistic child’s understanding of skills and social situations they are struggling to master and understand. By making the child with an ASD more comfortable with and in the situation, and suggest possible responses they may receive from others.

Social skills stories follow specific sentence types: descriptive, perspective, directive and control. Introduced around twenty years ago as a means of communication, Autism Social Stories have grown into a very popular visual strategy that can be used with all autistic individuals regardless of age and ability.

Generally social skills stories are written by experts, teachers and parents to help teach social and communication skills to autistic individuals. Autism Social Stories can be edited to suit all needs, personalised, printed and portable making them convenient and easy to use.

A social skills story written to direct children with autism can be introduced to help deal with any situation or skill that the autistic child needs help with. No formal training is needed to use social skills stories, site which offer support and expertly written Autism Social Stories can be found using search engines such as Google.

Sites that offer Autism Social Stories intended to support and direct children with autism like http://www.autismsocialstories.com offer support, and download’s of social skills stories for various situations and skills for a small fee.

A social skills story written to direct children with autism should be visual and use first person text, like a role model the social skills story written to direct children with autism will help with transitions, and changes to routines as well as teach and support social skills and communication difficulties.

For more information on this visual strategy visit any of the following sites and find Autism Social Stories intended to support and direct children with autism

Autism social skills stories are a pictorial directive used to help teach social skills to children that have autism.

Autism social skills stories provide the individual with ASD an explanation and visual framework of the skill or situation that they may find difficult or confusing.

Research shows that the Autism social skills stories are an excellent pictorial directive which can be used to help reduce stress and inappropriate behaviours in some children with an ASD.

The autism social skills story also increases social understanding and has been reported as a good approach for helping children with an ASD to reach their full potential.

The goal of a social skills story is to increase the autistic child’s understanding of skills and social situations they are struggling to master and understand. By making the child with an ASD more comfortable with and in the situation, and suggest possible responses they may receive from others.

Social skills stories follow specific sentence types: descriptive, perspective, directive and control. Introduced around twenty years ago as a means of communication Autism social skills stories have grown into a very popular pictorial instruction strategy that can be used with all autistic individuals regardless of age and ability.

Generally autistic social skills stories are written by experts, teachers and parents to help teach social and communication skills to autistic individuals. Autism social skills stories can be edited to suit all needs, personalized, printed and are portable making them convenient and easy to use.

A social skills story can be introduced to help deal with any situation or skill that the autistic child needs help with. No formal training is needed to use social skills stories, site which offer support and expertly written Autism social skills stories can be found using search engines such as Google.

Sites offering Autism social skills stories for children that have autism like http://www.autismsocialstories.com offer support and downloads of autistic social skills stories for various situations and skills for a small fee.

A social skills story should be visual and use first person text, like a role model the social skills story will help with transitions, and changes to routines as well as teach and support social skills and communication difficulties.

Autism Social Skills Stories are an autistic visual teaching means used to help teach social skills to children with autism.

Autism Social Skills Stories provide the individual with autism spectrum disorder an explanation and visual framework of the skill or situation that they may find difficult or confusing.

Research shows that the Autism Social Stories are an excellent autistic visual teaching means which can be used to help reduce stress and inappropriate behaviours in some children with an ASD. The social story also increases social understanding and has been reported as a good approach for helping children with an ASD to reach their full potential.

The goal of a social skills story written to guide children with autism is to increase the autistic child’s understanding of skills and social situations they are struggling to master and understand. By making the child with an ASD more comfortable with and in the situation, and suggest possible responses they may receive from others.

Social skills stories follow specific sentence types: descriptive, perspective, directive and control. Introduced around twenty years ago as a means of communication, Autism Social Stories have grown into a very popular visual strategy that can be used with all autistic individuals regardless of age and ability.

Generally social skills stories are written by experts, teachers and parents to help teach social and communication skills to autistic individuals. Autism Social Stories can be edited to suit all needs, personalized, printed and are portable making them convenient and easy to use.

A social skills story written to guide children with autism can be introduced to help deal with any situation or skill that the autistic child needs help with. No formal training is needed to use social skills stories, site which offer support and expertly written Autism Social Stories can be found using search engines such as Google.

Sites that offer Autism Social Stories designed to support and guide children with autism like http://www.autismsocialstories.com offer support, and download’s of social skills stories for various situations and skills for a small fee.

A social skills story written to guide children with autism should be visual and use first person text, like a role model the social skills story written to guide children with autism will help with transitions, and changes to routines as well as teach and support social skills and communication difficulties.

For more information on this visual strategy visit any of the following sites and find Autism Social Stories designed to support and guide children with autismhttp://www.autismsocialstories.com

A child on the autism spectrum will not set out intentionally to cause stress or upset anybodies feelings. A child on the autism spectrum will not misbehave or harm simply out of fun or mischief.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disorder that affects the individual’s brain. Autism Spectrum Disorder affects the way the individual processes information, communicates, uses language, thinks, acts, reacts and uses their imagination. These common characteristics of autism are called social skills deficits.

The common characteristics of autism will often make a child with autism appear rude, aloof even arrogant at times. However this is not intentional, a person with autism spectrum disorder will be brutally honest and say as they see it, be uninterested in appearing cool and oblivious to public opinion.

These are not bad characteristics, just difficult to understand. However for parents with autistic children these common characteristics of autism can make life extremely difficult and at times stressful.

Approaches to teach children with autism social and communication skills and behaviours are useful, research does suggest parents report significant improvements in social behaviours.

Having the ability to socially interact and communicate both verbally and non-verbally is a naturally learnt ability in typically developing beings. These skills however are missing in autistic children and need to be taught directly.

Using Approaches to teach children with autism such as autism social stories does show vast improvements in social and communication skills. Autism social stories are short descriptive stories like a social script or framework for the skills or behaviour needing to be taught.

Using visual images which most autistic children find easier to understand and first person text the social story breaks the skill down into relevant social cues and shows the person with autism spectrum disorder what to expect and what others will expect from them.

Answering the “wh” questions – who, where, why, when and what as well as offering an insight into the verbal and non verbal communications of others, social skills stories can help support as well as teach social and communications skills, thus reducing stress and inappropriate behaviours.

Autism Social Stories are an autistic visual teaching tool used to help teach social skills to children with autism.

Autism Social Stories provide the individual with autism spectrum an explanation and visual framework of the skill or situation that they may find difficult or confusing.

Research shows that the Autism Social Stories are an excellent autistic visual teaching tool which can be used to help reduce stress and inappropriate behaviours in some children with an ASD. The social story also increases social understanding and has been reported as a good approach for helping children with an ASD to reach their full potential.

The goal of a social skills story is to increase the autistic child’s understanding of skills and social situations they are struggling to master and understand. By making the child with an ASD more comfortable with and in the situation, and suggest possible responses they may receive from others.

Social skills stories follow specific sentence types: descriptive, perspective, directive and control. Introduced around twenty years ago as a means of communication, Autism Social Stories have grown into a very popular visual strategy that can be used with all autistic individuals regardless of age and ability.

Generally social skills stories are written by experts, teachers and parents to help teach social and communication skills to autistic individuals. Autism Social Stories can be edited to suit all needs, personalized, printed and are portable making them convenient and easy to use.

A social skills story can be introduced to help deal with any situation or skill that the autistic child needs help with. No formal training is needed to use social skills stories, site which offer support and expertly written Autism Social Stories can be found using search engines such as Google.

Sites that offer Autism Social Stories designed to aid children with autism like http://www.autismsocialstories.com offer support, and downloads of social skills stories for various situations and skills for a small fee.

A social skills story should be visual and use first person text, like a role model the social skills story will help with transitions, and changes to routines as well as teach and support social skills and communication difficulties.

For more information on this visual strategy visit any of the following sites and find Autism Social Stories designed to aid children with autism

Astonishingly up to 50 percent of children with autism will never develop speech, whilst the others will develop some form of early communication skills.

However, children on the spectrum rarely engage in effective communication.

When we think of speech – language we refer to the body of words, the formations of sounds, as well as the structures and forms used to construct speech.

Communication on the other hand can occur either verbally through speech or non-verbally through the use of spoken words, gestures, signs, or by pointing to printed words or symbols.

To communicate effectively, we must firstly be able to understand why we need to communicate with others, have the desire to communicate, have somebody to communicate with, have something to communicate about, and have a means of expressing ourselves.

As children develop, they begin to explore their environment and start to understand the cause and effect around them. For example when they are thirsty they can point to the fridge or a cup…When they are wanting a cuddle or are tired they may raise both hands to picked up.

With Autism communication and interaction , sometimes this inquisitiveness is missing, the lack of interest in their surroundings and the lack of effective eye contact make learning communication very difficult.

By the time a non-verbal child on the autistic spectrum starts school, they may already have seen a speech therapist to establish a program to aid with the development of effective communication. The speech therapist will need to determine some appropriate objectives and goals, a base level of communication will be established by carefully observing the child within the school setting.

In certain cases it may be necessary for the child to learn a new form of communication. For example the child may cry or scream when they need something and this is their form of communication. But this is not going to be effective in a classroom full of children. There fore new forms of communication will need to be established.

Social skills stories can be used as a form of Autism communication and interaction with a verbal and non-verbal child on the autistic spectrum.

Autism social stories are short but descriptive pieces of text with appropriate pictures and images to support the story – or instruction. So for example if the new skill is to help the child on the autistic spectrum understand the need for quiet reading at school, the appropriate autism social story would be selected and implemented.

The social skillsstory will pictorially show as well as the text the reason why the children are expected to be silent, who is expecting them to be silent and why also the consequence of not being quiet and the consequent or reward for being quiet.

Children on the spectrum tend to be visual learners, which is why studies have shown that autism social stories are an excellent aid in developing good foundations for behaviour and social skills for children on the spectrum and adults, as well as excellent tools for helping develop communication skills.

Working with children on the autistic spectrum within the classroom can be challenging as well as quite stressful.

Students with autistic spectrum are typically more likely to need support within the classroom environment as well throughout the school day. The individual on the spectrum will display the triad of autistic deficits set out below:

Social deficits.

Communication deficits.

Imagination and interaction deficits.

Autism is one of the pervasive developmental disorders. The spectrum ranges from low functioning autism where the student will need special needs education, may be non-verbal and have specific learning disabilities.

To high functioning autism or aspergers syndrome; where the child may need support within the classroom but is capable of inclusion in mainstream education.

Students with high functioning autism or aspergers syndrome as it is sometimes called will have an average to above average IQ.

Children on the autistic spectrum typically have difficulties with making and maintaining friendships and find starting or taking part in conversations or discussions difficult.

The education of students with autistic spectrum is made harder due to student communication, imagination and interpretation impairments. They will have trouble understanding imaginative and interactive lessons.

The student on the spectrum will think and talk literally, and have little understanding of facial expressions or body language. They will not understand sarcasm, pun’s or jokes. Children on the autistic spectrum are often referred to as “locked in their own world”.

Therefore educating children on the autistic spectrum needs careful thought and planning. Keep structure and timetables as rigid as possible. The student on the spectrum will respond well to routines and could become very confused, stressed and anxious when routines are changed or broken, try to avoid this where possible and if you find you need to alter a routine, try and give the student on the spectrum plenty of warnings.

You can use autism social stories for this. Recent research suggests children on the autistic spectrum like using autism socialstories, and respond well when autism social stories have been implemented.

Children with autism will often interrupt lessons inappropriately and be unable to interpret any cues that such interruptions are unwelcome.

Using autism social stories can HELP to stop this behavior by teaching the student on the autistic spectrum class rules and appropriate classroom behavior. As well as being used to keep the student on track during lessons.

Autism social stories can also be implemented for lunchtimes, break times, toilet break, timeouts, home time, assembly in fact all situations surrounding the school day; making educating children with autism less stressful.

For download of autism social stories to help in the classroom and at school in general visit:

What are supports for teaching social skills activities to children with autism ?

There are several methods through which we learn:

Through seeing (visually)

Hearing (auditory),

Touching or manipulating an object (kinesthetically or ‘hands-on’ learning).

An example of these would be, looking at a picture book or reading a textbook, this would be visual learning. Listening to a c.d., or going to a lecture this would be learning through hearing…and pressing buttons to determine how to operate a DVD involves learning kinesthetically, through touch and feel.

Mostly we learn through two or more of these learning skills. How we learn will determine how ell we do at school.

Most mainstream school adopt all of these learning methods, we visually learn through reading books and texts, we learn through listening to out teachers and we practice tasks to learn.

With children on the autism spectrum they will nearly always be visual learners. Some children on the autism spectrum will also be kinesthetic learners and may well benefit form their teacher or helper actually guiding their hand while they undertake tasks.

Therefore, it is important that a teacher assess each ASD child in the class to determine which kind of learning skill they prefer. The teacher can then adapt the teaching style to suit the ASD child’s need’s and build on their strengths.

However one very important thing to remember when assessing an ASD child is their need for repetition and sameness. Keeping this in mind when setting lessons will be of benefit.

A visual timetable should always be in place for the ASD student to refer too.

The supports for teaching social skills activities to children with autism are readily available nowadays and can be easy to use, supports such as autism social stories are used with tremendous effect.

The autism social skills story will help keep the ASD child on task, and work as an excellent tool in helping teachers explain the why, what, where, when and how to the ASD student.

Using autism social skills stories as supports for teaching social skills activities to children with autism will benefit the ASD student, they can be read, auditory, they have appropriate pictures and images plus some text, visual and they can be handles kinesthetic, or used as a visual aid with attachable pictures etc…

However you decide to use it an autism social skills story will prove to be a valuable asset to the supports for teaching social skills activities to children with autism that are already in place.

To obtain school related autism social skills stories that can be downloaded quickly and effortlessly and are all in printable format please visit:

Autism is a disorder that affects the social and communication skills of an individual. This is typically known as the triad of autistic impairments it is recognised by the individual’s ability to:

Socially interact

Use affective communication

And their imagination skills

Plus in many individuals on the spectrum there are marked sensory processing issues which can affect how many individuals on the spectrum use their senses (taste, smell, touch, sound and sight).

Many children with an ASD will also display obsessive and repetitive behaviours, will prefer routines and can become anxious if these routines change.

Children with an ASD also present difficulties with non-verbal as well as verbal communication. A child with autism will have difficulties understanding the communication and language used by those around them as well difficulties in developing effective communication themselves.

Unlike typically developing children that learn social skills naturally, a child with autism will struggle. For many parents probably the hardest challenge they face is their child’s difficulty to understand the social behaviour of others. A child with autism will have difficulties displaying and understanding appropriate socially accepted behaviours.

Generally most individuals on the spectrum do not process information in the same manner as typically developing beings. The opinions and thoughts of other are of no real consequence for individuals on the spectrum, which can cause frustrations and upset.

Consequently, understanding autism spectrum disorders can be frustrating and stressful for those involved in the everyday care of an individual on the spectrum.

Research shows us however that although there is no cure for autism there are various treatments of autism that are available that can help overcome triad of autistic impairments.

Various treatments of autism like social skills stories work effectively addressing the triad of autistic impairments. They do this by showing the autistic child what to expect in certain situations or what is expected of them which reduces stress and helps control anxieties.

By answering the ever important “wh” questions – who, where, why, when and what as well as giving an insight into the thoughts and feelings of others a social skills stories visually explain using images and relevant social cues the skill or situation. All helping an autistic child to better understand and cope with the skill or situation that

They may be struggling with.

To find a greater understanding: Let’s talk autism – autism social stories and see how social skills stories can help address some of the issues faced by children with an ASD visit sites:

More often than not people with autism have social deficiencies and lack the ability to “mind read” or understand what others maybe thinking. They will not have the ability to understand body language or facial expression. Something we as a whole take for granted.

Social deficiencies become apparent early in childhood and continue through to adulthood.

Children with autism will pay less attention to social stimuli, they will probably smile a lot less and won’t be interested in engaging with others, they may also respond less to their own name.

You may find your autistic toddler for example, will give less eye contact, may respond less to his/her name, not be as cuddly and is more likely to communicate by pulling on your hand and leading you to what they desire.

By the ages of between three to five years old most normally developing youngsters will understand facial expressions, body language and non-verbal communication skills…and most definitely learnt how to manipulate their parents!…

Children with autism are less likely to exhibit any social understanding, they will almost certainly be less likely to approach others spontaneously, imitate and respond to emotions, and still not grasp the concept of turn taking.

However, Children with autism do form attachments to their primary caregivers, parents, and teachers. They will undoubtedly display less attachment than that of a normally developing child though.

Children with asperger or mild autism may be more likely to form stronger bonds, but as they grow older studies have shown they perform slightly less on tests of face and emotion recognition.

Making and maintaining friendships often proves to be difficult for those with autism. For them, the quality of friendships, not the number of friends, predicts how lonely they are.

Children with autism like all normally developing children do need friends…and as a parent or teacher of a child on the spectrum there are ways in which you can help them understand the importance of being a good friend. As well as helping them learn the skill of making friends, something again we take for granted, for a person with autism this skill does not come naturally, but needs to be learnt.

As a primary caregiver, parent or teacher, you can help by introducing the idea of autism social stories as a technique of explaining how we make friends, why we need friends and how to then maintain those friendships in easy to understand language.

These valuable short pieces of text are an excellent tool which you can use with your child on the spectrum to help them understand and control situations.

Appropriate autism social stories are well written in the first person and will have images and or photos showing your child on the spectrum in a clear helpful manner how, why, what, where and when they should do something. They will give the appropriate responses the person with autism may expect and also the responses they themselves should expect from others.

Studies have shown Children with autism respond well to autism social stories and by using them it is reported there is an improvement in their social understanding of certain situations, activities and events.

To obtain printable autism social stories – Autism Social development and deficiency which you can download and use visit

For many parents raising a child with special needs is stressful enough, but when your child has autism spectrum disorder you may well be faced with additional challenges.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurological disorder that affects a person their whole life. Autism Spectrum Disorder can not be cured and research continues into the causes of this disorder.

Being on the Autism Spectrum will affect a person’s social, communication, interaction and imagination skills and behaviours, it is often said that children with autism live in “their own world”. A person with autism will be faced with a wide variety of developmental challenges, due to the characteristics of autism.

There are many therapies and supports for autism that can help address the characteristics of autism. If you are the parent or teacher of a child with autism you may want to consider some of these that will help facilitate the learning of social skills for kids with autism, for example PECS, flash cards and autism social stories all of which are used effectively in the treatment of autism.

Many parents raising a child with special needs such as Autism Spectrum Disorder use autism social stories as a strategy to help their child communicate and learn vital everyday social skills.

For a typically developing child social and communication skills are learnt naturally, with autism this ability is missing this due the characteristics of autism.

Learning effective social and communication skills using autism social stories as a strategy is simple parents do not need any formal training to use a social story or flash cards.

To learn more about autism social stories visit www.autismsocialstories.com to gain downloads of social stories and other useful resources that help facilitate the learning of social skills for kids with autism.

Autism social stories are short descriptive visual representations like a framework of the skill or behaviour that the child with Autism Spectrum Disorder is struggling to master or cope with, therefore reducing anxieties and stress. They are always written in first person text and will answer the “wh” questions – who, what, where, why and when as well as How

ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is a pervasive developmental disorder which affects approximately 1 in every 1000 children born; the condition is almost always detected before the age of three.

The traits of autism will vary between individuals, as no two individuals are ever going to be the same. However some common traits of autism that all those with this pervasive developmental disorder will display are that of social skills deficits.

All kidswith autism will have social skills deficits in three main areas of developmental, social interactions, communication and imagination skills as well as difficulties with ritualistic or repetitive behaviours.

One of the major issues faced by kids with autism is reading facial and body language, as well as understanding verbal and nonverbal communications and gestures.

The traits of autism you may have noticed in your ASD child could be:

An ASD child may lack of the ability to direct others attention to what they want or need. Unlike a normally developing child, who will point or gesture towards the object in question.

Kids with autism rarely adjust their gaze to look at objects, and lack the inclination to look at something they are being directed towards.

An ASD child may have communication difficulties and find sustaining or beginning conversations difficult.

Sometimes kids with autism will be slow developing speech and sometimes speech may never actually begin.

They may engage in repetitive behaviours…for example repeating a TV commercial or rhyme etc.

They may confuse simple language terms, and use language in the wrong context, for example they may refer to themselves by name in a conversation or sentence, not by saying “I”; i.e. rather than saying “can I have a biscuit”, they may say “Ben wants a biscuit” and so on…

On occasions an autistic child may prefer to communicate by gesture rather than using speech.

Autistic children have difficulties in making eye contact which can make social encounters difficult therefore making friends can be an issue for many autistic children.

An autistic child will struggle with interactive games and pretend play, failing to see what the point of the activity or game is.

Understanding your ASD child and forming appropriate approaches for teaching a child with ASD is very important.

There are various approaches for teaching a child with ASD. One very effective strategy is the use of visual support tools such as autism social stories.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is far more common these days, and research into the treatments of this pervasive developmental disorder suggests using visual support tools such as autism social stories has impacted on the lives and families of those diagnosed ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).

ASD approaches such as autism social stories are used for all situations and activities the ASD child may be confused by or struggling with, for example: Going to the dentist, the death of a loved one, a new car, brushing their hair.

You will probably have come across sensory integration or sensory processing disorder and autism if you have a child with autism spectrum disorder.

These conditions are normally associated with children on the spectrum because they suffer with sensory deficits. Children with autism spectrum disorder have trouble processing sensoryinput for example they are normally either over sensitive or under sensitive.

Generally children with autism spectrum disorder will have problems processing sensory input which will often result in over reactions which can make participation in social activities difficult, or will result in anxiety and stress for the autistic child.

Children with autism can be over sensitive to light, sound, feel, touch and smell making life difficult. These sensitivities can result in the autistic child being unable to perform certain tasks for example they may be sensitive to the taste of toothpaste or the lights in a shop, maybe the feel of the car seats and so on…

In some cases a GP may diagnose sensory processing disorder and autism. Howeverthis is not always the case most autistic children will have sensitivities, these can be controlled and eased without medication in a lot of cases by using supports such as autism social stories.

Autism social stories can help children with autistic spectrum and sensory concerns, for example is your child is over sensitive to the feel of the cold metal in their mouth at the dentist, appropriate social stories for autism and going to the dentist can help alleviate the anxiety a trip to the dentist can bring on, helping to make the experience less fraught and stressful.

Or maybe your child with autistic spectrum and sensory concerns is having difficulties with flushing the chain or other sensory difficulties, using social stories for autism can benefit the child and help make them more relaxed with the situation.

To download appropriate autism social stories and learn more about how they can help an autistic child with sensory concerns as well as teach social skills and behaviors visit:

Commonly the vast majority of children with autism WILL struggle with the everyday tasks and skills that a typically developing individual will have NO PROBLEMS with, like for example making friends, asking questions appropriately, joining in play and so on.

It’s mainly due to the individuals social skills deficits which ARE common to ALL with Autism Spectrum Disorder and in many cases sensory processing issues that many children with autism have difficulties with otherwise “normal” skills and behaviours.

It is therefore recommended that using autism visual aids CAN be beneficial. Autism visual aids are designed specifically to help overcome some of the difficulties many children and young people with autism face daily.

Recent autism treatment research suggests that autism visual aids like visual support cards, autism social stories, PECS communication boards and visual schedules all HAVE a large part to play in the treatment and development of social and communication skills for many autistic kids.

Parents CAN NOW find sites offering autism visual aids which ARE run by parents and professionals that offer support and other autistic tools.

Sites which offer autistic tools can be found easily using search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing and through Directories.

The World CAN be a very confusing place to a child on the spectrum, many of the everyday skills we take for granted a child with autism CAN FIND difficult and stressful.

Typically many families with an autistic child can find even supposedly fun activities like visiting relatives, a trip to the shop, supermarket, buying new clothes can be difficult when you have a child on the autism spectrum.

Help, is what most families with an autistic child need as well as trusted Aids that have been proven to work.

Help such as autism social stories ARE beneficial. What are autism social stories?

Probably the most significant autism visual aids ARE autism social stories. Asocial story is much like a role model or visual plan used to describe a skill or situation in terms of relevant social cues and prompts.

Today autism social stories are EASY TO IMPLEMENT need no formal training to use and can be edited to suit all terminology and autistic kids no matter where on the spectrum scale they fall.

As one of the major autistic tools used to help teach, support and HELP individuals with autism to overcome social skills deficits social skills stories ARE available to download TODAY from sites likehttp://www.autismsocialstories.com

A social story will answer the important “wh” questions – who, where, why, when and what as well as “HOW” and give an insight into the thoughts, emotions and nonverbal communications of others helping the autistic child get a handle on the skill or situation which can reduce tantrums, meltdowns and general stress for everyone.

So for example if the family want to visit Granny introducing a social story can help describe to the child with autism exactly what to expect reducing anxiety and what is expected of them reducing stress. The social skills story is editable, can be personalized, printed for convenience and is portable so can be popped into a bag making it an ideal autistic support.

Sites which offer IMMEDIATE ACCESS to autism visual aids like autism social stories and visual support cards for a minimal fee like:http://www.autismsocialstories.com are run by experts, offer autism social stories and support to families and individuals with autism.

Commonly the vast majority of children with autism WILL struggle with the everyday tasks and skills that a typically developing individual will have NO PROBLEMS with, like for example making friends, asking questions appropriately, joining in play and so on.

It’s mainly due to the individuals social skills deficits which ARE common to ALL with Autism Spectrum Disorder and in many cases sensory processing issues that many children with autism have difficulties with otherwise “normal” skills and behaviours.

It is therefore recommended that using Visual Aids for Autism CAN be beneficial. Visual Aids for Autism are designed specifically to help overcome some of the difficulties many children and young people with autism face daily.

Recent autism treatment research suggests that Visual Aids for Autism like visual support cards, autism social skills stories, PECS communication boards and visual schedules all HAVE a large part to play in the treatment and development of social and communication skills for many autistic kids.

Parents CAN NOW find sites offering Visual Aids for Autism which ARE run by parents and professionals that offer support and other autistic resources.

Sites which offer autistic resources can be found easily using search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing and through Directories.

The World CAN be a very confusing place to a child on the spectrum, many of the everyday skills we take for granted a child with autism CAN FIND difficult and stressful.

Typically many families with an autistic child can find even supposedly fun activities like visiting relatives, a trip to the shop, supermarket, buying new clothes can be difficult when you have a child on the autism spectrum.

Help, is what most families with an autistic child need as well as trusted Aids that have been proven to work.

Help such as autism social skills stories ARE beneficial. What are autism social skills stories?

Probably the most significant Visual Aids for Autism ARE autism social skills stories. Asocial story is much like a role model or visual plan used to describe a skill or situation in terms of relevant social cues and prompts.

Today autism social skills stories are EASY TO IMPLEMENT need no formal training to use and can be edited to suit all terminology and autistic kids no matter where on the spectrum scale they fall.

As one of the major autistic resources used to help teach, support and HELP individuals with autism to overcome social skills deficits social skills stories ARE available to download TODAY from sites like http://www.autismsocialstories.com

A social story will answer the important “wh” questions – who, where, why, when and what as well as “HOW” and give an insight into the thoughts, emotions and non-verbal communications of others helping the autistic child get a handle on the skill or situation which can reduce tantrums, meltdowns and general stress for everyone.

So for example if the family want to visit Granny introducing a social story can help describe to the child with autism exactly what to expect reducing anxiety and what is expected of them reducing stress. The social skills story is editable, can be personalized, printed for convenience and is portable so can be popped into a bag making it an ideal autistic support.

Sites which offer downloadable and printableVisual Aids for Autism like autism social skills stories and visual support cards for a minimal fee like: http://www.autismsocialstories.com are run by experts, offer autism social skills stories and support to families and individuals with autism.

Social Stories are a visual tool used to help teach social skills to children on the autism spectrum.

Autism social stories provide the individual with autism an explanation and visual framework of the skill or situation that they may find difficult or confusing.

Research shows that Autism social stories are an excellent visual tool which can be used to help reduce stress and inappropriate behaviours in some children with ASD. The social story also increases social understanding and has been reported as a good approach for helping children with ASD to reach their full potential.

The goal of a social skills story is to increase the child with autisms understanding of skills and social situations they are struggling to master and understand. By making the child with ASD more comfortable with and in the situation, and suggest possible responses they may receive from others.

Autism social skills stories follow specific sentence types: descriptive, perspective, directive and control. Introduced around twenty years ago as a means of communication, autism social stories have grown into a very popular visual strategy that can be used with all individuals on the spectrum regardless of age and ability.

Generally autism social skills stories are written by experts, teachers and parents to help teach social and communication skills to individuals on the spectrum. Autism social stories can be edited to suit all needs, personalized, printed and are portable making them convenient and easy to use.

A social skills story can be introduced to help deal with any situation or skill that the child on the spectrum needs help with. No formal training is needed to use autism social skills stories, site which offer support and expertly written social stories can be found using search engines such as Google.

Sites that offer social stories for children on the autism spectrum like http://www.autismsocialstories.com offer support and downloads of autism social skills stories for various situations and skills for a small fee.

A social skills story should be visual and use first person text, like a role model the social skills story will help with transitions, and changes to routines as well as teach and support social skills and communication difficulties.

For more information on this visual strategy visit any of the following sites and find social stories for children on the autism spectrum